brooks



' (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. E. J. BROOKS.

SELF FASTENING SEAL. No. 349,932. g ga tented Apr. 27, 7:

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(No Model.) B J BROOKS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

SELF FASTENING SEAL.

Patented Apr. 27, 1886.

lass UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD J. RROoKs, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR T0 E. J. BROOKS & 00., OF NEW YORK, n. Y.

SELF-FASTENING SEAL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 340,932, dated April 27, 1886.

Application filed February 25, F86. Serial No. 193,382.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWARD J. BRooKs, a

citizen of the United States, residing at East Orange, in the State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement-in Self- Fastening Seals, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention is additional to my improvement in seals patented August 12, 1884, by Letters Patent of the United States No. 303,417; and it consists, primarily, in an improved self -fastening seal composed of a permanently hollow seal part in the form of a hard and brittle tube, preferably of typemetal or glass, and a flexible metallic shackle, preferably of flat wire, having hooks or snapcatches at its respective extremities,adapted to interlock with each other, and provided with guards fast on the shackle ends, and serving to prevent access to the interlocked catches through either end of the sealingtube, as said seal part will hereinafter be termed, and also to preclude displacing said tube endwise, so as to expose the catches.

The invention consists, further, in certain auxiliary features of construction hereinafter set forth and claimed.

The objects of the respectivepa-rts of this invention are, first, to form a small, simple, and secure self-fastening seal; secondly, to provide for employing for its shackle narrow fiat wire; and, thirdly, to obviate any peculiar internal construction of the sealing-tube.

Two sheets of drawings accompany this specification as part thereof.

Figure 1 of these drawings is a perspective view, partly in section, of the shackle part of a self-fastening seal ready for the market, illustrating this invention. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of its sealing-tube. Fig. 3 is an elevation-of both parts, showing the shackle applied to a pair of sealing-staples, and illustrating by full and dotted lines the fastening operation. Fig. 4 is a similar view, more fully in section, showing the fastened seal; and Fig. 5 is a face view of the fastened seal. Figs. 6 and 7 are perspective views of the two parts of another seal, the shackle part partly in section, illustrating modifications of the same invention. Fig. 8 is a sectional face (No model.)

' view of the modified seal fastened, and Fig.

9 is an external face view of the same. Fig. 10 is an elevation of a third seal constructed according to the same invention in part. Fig. 11 represents a horizontal section on the line 11 11, Fig. 10. Fig. 12 represents a crosssection of its cylindrical glass sealing-tube, and Fig. 12 a cross-section of a flattened glass sealing-tube.

Like letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

Each of the seals shown in the drawings is composed of a flexible metallic shackle, A, and a hard and brittle sealing-tube, B, the former adapted to coact with sealing-staples G G, or the like, and having at its extremities hooks or snap catches s 8, adapted to interlock with each other within said tube, and provided with rigid guards GG, fast on its respcctive ends and adapted to occupy the ends of the bore of said tube when the seal is fastened,and to prevent the endwise displacement of the tube, so as to preclude access to the interlocked snap-catches, as aforesaid. The sealing-tube is preferably of typemetal or transparent glass, the latter exposing to view the interlocked snap-catches, as represented in Fig. 10. The catches are formed on the ends of the shackle-wire by bends, as shown, and said rigid guards, cast or molded upon the shackle, may be of the same material as the accompanying sealing-tube, or of a different suitable material, as preferred, and are made fast on the wire by providing the latter with roughening devices T, which may be notches, for example, as indicated in Figs. 1 and 4., or fi1e-cuts, as indicated in Fig. 7, or corrugations, as represented in Fig. 10.

In eachof said seals represented by Figs. 1 to 9, inclusive, the sealing-tube B has lettering or marks Z m molded thereon, and is cast or molded with a non-circular bore, 5, Figs. 2 and 6,to the ends of which said guards G are fitted, which precludes twisting either of the snap catches 8 within the tube in attempts to open the fastened seal by manipulation. This renders the use of narrow flat wire safe, and the shackles of these seals are preferably of such flat wire, say not exceeding one-eighth of an inch wide,this or aless width being so rendered available. In so forming the tube it is preferably made, together with its bore, rectangular in cross-section, as represented. This also makes it convenient to provide the top of the tube for railway use with lettering Z, indicating the name of the road applying the seal, and its front side with marks m, indicating the station at which it was applied, so that both marks may be readily observed, which is desirable.

In the preferred species represented by Figs. 1 to 5, inclusive, and in the modifications represented by Figs. to 12, inclusive, said bore 2) of each sealingtube B is symmetrical-that is to say, of the same or substantially the same shape and size from end to endwhich materially facilitates its manufacture, and its endwise displacement is prevented by heads or flanges f on the guards G,which flanges abut against the ends of the tube when the seal is fastened, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, and in Figs. 10 and 11.

In the modification represented by Figs. 6 to 9, inclusive, the bore b of the sealing-tube B tapers in width from each end to midlength, as shown in Fig. 8, and the guards G are correspondingly shaped and so tightly fitted there to as to preclude the endwise displacement of the tube.

In making the sealing-tubes of glass they may, preferably, be formed ofdrawn-glasstnbing, as represented on Sheet 2 of the drawings, by cutting the same into suitable lengths,with

' or without flattening such tubing, while hot, so

as to render its bore non-circular, as represented by Fig.12 Ifthe sealing-tube B be circular in cross-section, as represented by Figs. 10 to 12, inclusive, it is necessary to adapt the shackle to prevent the separation of its interlocked ends within the sealing-tube by twisting them without such violence thereto as to insure detection. This is accomplished by the relatively wider shackle A, Figs, 10 and 11.

The shackle part and sealing-tube of each seal go to the market detached from each other, and the former preferablystraight or unbent, as represented by Figs. 1, 2, 6, and 7. In applying the seal, as illustrated by Fig. 3, the tube is slipped over one of the shackle ends, the guard on this end of the shackle and the tube are both grasped between the thumb and a finger of one hand, and the other end of the shackle is passed through the sealing-staples. The seal is represented at this stage by full lines in the figure. The other shackle end is now introduced by the other hand into the protruding open end of the tube, and immediately the two snap-catches become interlocked with each other, as represented by dotted lines in the figure. The interlocking occurs at or near the innermost positions of the catches, and they can only afterward be separated by applying sufficient strain to break the shackle, or by breaking the sealing-tube. In either case the violation of the seal is readily detected.

Having thus described my said improvement in self-fastening seals, I claim as my invention and desire to patent under thisspecification 1. An improved self-fastening seal composed ofa hard and brittle sealing-tube with open ends and a flexible metallic shackle having at its respective extremities snapcatches adapted to interlock with each other within said tube, and provided with guards fast on the respective shackle ends and fitted to the ends of the tube, substantially as herein specified.

2. In a self-fastening seal, the combination of a hard and brittle sealing tube, the bore of which is non-circular in cross-section, and a flexible metallic shackle of narrow flat wire, having snap-catches formed on its respective extremities and provided with rigid guards fast on the wire fitted to the respective ends ofsaid bore and occupying the same when the seal is fastened, substantially as herein specified.

3. The combination, in a self-fastening seal, of a hard and brittle sealing-tube having a symmetrical bore extending through it from end to end and a flexible metallic shackle having snap-catches at its respective extremities adapted to interlock with each other with in said tube, and provided with rigid guards fast on the respective ends of the shackle, occupying the ends of said bore when the seal is fastened, and having flanges which abut against the ends of the tube, substantially as herein specified.

EDWARD J. BROOKS.

Witnesses:

GEO. F. MEIxNER, HENRY L. G. WENK. 

